Archive for the 'Mental Disorders' Category

Body dysmorphic disorder is a chronic mental disorder in which a person is obsessed with flaws in their appearance, either real or imagined.

Even minor flaws are imagined as major problems, seen as deformities, and they don’t want to be looked at by other people.

People with this disorder are intensely obsessed over their physical appearance and may find ways to “correct” the problems although they are never satisfied with the results of any procedure.

While it is normal human behavior to care for your appearance, people with body dysmorphic disorder take this to extremes. They have a constant pre-occupation with how they look, they firmly believe they have a deformity that makes them ugly and they either avoid mirrors or spend excessive amounts of time grooming themselves in front of one.

They believe that other people are staring at their deformity, they feel very self-conscious, they probably avoid going out socially and wear clothes and make-up to hide their appearance.

Many sufferers have multiple cosmetic procedures to fix their imagined shortcomings; they may be continuously grooming themselves, comparing themselves to others and refusing to have their photo taken.

Panic may have taken over your life. You probably avoid unknown places and uncomfortable situations.

Your agoraphobia seems to control everything you do. The fear that you feel is all too real to you.

Going to sporting events where you are around many people is probably over whelming.

Riding in elevators, going over bridges, and standing in long lines is painful for you to do. Shopping should be a fun outing with family and friends, but it can turn into your own personal nightmare.

People who suffer from agoraphobia often feel this way. Do not feel like you are alone, because you are not. Large numbers of people suffer on a daily basis, and can relate to what you are going through. There are ways to overcome some of your fears though.

Symptoms

Some symptoms that you may feel when a spell of agoraphobia is about to take hold are:

• Dizziness: Your world starts to spin and you feel faint
• Breathing Problems: Your chest starts to close and you cannot breathe
• Palm Sweating: The palms of your hands sweat profusely
• Heart Rate: You feel like your heart is running a race

Learning disabilities can present in a variety of different ways, which can make getting an exact diagnosis a difficult process.

But an exact diagnosis is essential to developing the best plan of action for your child.

Research has uncovered some new ways that ADHD can present. One of these is inconsistent reaction times when the child is performing short-term memory exercises.

This is the kind of memory often referred to as working memory—the kind of memory that allows you to remember what you are doing and stay on task.

Children with ADHD can get the answers right, but do not show the same consistency in response times as their counterparts on these types of exercises, doing math problems, for example.

Children who have more traditional ADHD symptoms, and are more hyperactive, restless, or impulsive, tend to have even slower reaction times than children who have ADHD but do not necessarily have these traditional symptoms.

This is not to say that every child who seems occasionally slow when it comes to answering questions or staying on tasks has ADHD. But this is important new information and may help medical professionals understand more about how ADHD affects child behavior, especially when it presents in a way not associated with hyperactivity.

According to the latest survey in California there have been around 50,000 new cases of dementia in the state in the last year.

According to the same sources, this figure continues to grow dramatically year after year, this is the region with one of the oldest populations in the US.

A new manual issued by health authorities includes examples and suggestions of everyday and easy to implement suggestions for both- for the patient and the caregiver, so that both can lead a normal life as possible within the process which involves the care of these patients.

The guide aims to help with useful and practical information on the care required by people with dementia at different stages of the disease.

There are over 80 different forms of dementia. Of these, Alzheimer’s disease is the most common and known as representing between 60 and 80 percent of cases.

Symptoms like memory loss and cognitive and communicative skills or lack of other skills to lead a normal life are common in this type of disease, but each individual can be affected very differently.

A new study has found that people who have high levels of urate are less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease.

The body naturally produces urate, the result of uric acid combining with a base substance. Gout is the result of too much urate.

However, urate has antioxidant properties. Researchers believe optimal levels of urate may help prevent damage to neurons found in the brain.

In their studies they found that people who had Parkinson’s were more likely to have low blood levels or urate.

The study primarily involves men and Caucasians, but researchers suspect the results will also apply to women and African Americans; further studies will be required to see if those suspicions bear out.

High levels of urate appeared to lower the risk of study participants developing Parkinson’s disease by 60 percent. Because this effect has been seen in other studies, researchers believe that the association between the disease and the chemical is causative.

Again, most previous studies have been among men. Additional studies will need to be conducted to confirm these findings and to see if the correlation is the same for women.

The problem of young binge drinkers is increasing, with some being only adolescents, which means by the time they are in their early twenties, they are already dependent on alcohol.

Results of a study recently published in the journal Alcohol and Alcoholism, shows that women, in particular, are more greatly affected by alcohol.

This is because they metabolize it in a different way so therefore alcohol has a more noxious effect on both the body and the brain.

Memory problems for heavy drinkers can occur as young as the early forties. Co-author Dr. Jane Marshall states that despite popular belief dementia is not just something that happens to the elderly.

In fact, up to a quarter of cases diagnosed in the UK, could be put down to the high consumption of drink. [Alcohol Abuse]

It certainly sets alarm bells ringing as in recent years the increase in young women drinking is very significant. Trying to get the long term effects of heavy drinking across to teens when old age seems so far away and irrelevant is hard.

When you are young living for today is what it is all about, they have little interest in what will happen to their health in 40 years.

Research performed on human brains, has resulted in development of anti-Parkinson’s drug called levodopa which has had a fundamental effect on the controlling of Parkinson’s disease. [Parkinson’s Disease Symptoms]

The only way to begin to fully understand this crippling disease is to look at healthy brains and also those with the condition.

Currently one thousand people a year donate their brain for medical research and the Parkinson’s disease Society are trying to encourage many more to register. Several high profile individuals have signed up including the actress Jane Asher and a BBC news reporter, Jeremy Paxman.

Over one in every five hundred families is affected by Parkinson’s disease every year and that is just in the United Kingdom alone.

Famously Michael J Fox and boxer Muhammad Ali are sufferers; it is a neurological disorder affecting walking, talking and other motor functions. It progressively worsens and causes much pain.

Although donating organs is becoming increasingly an automatic gesture for a lot of people, there is still a stigma attached to donating one’s brain.

A survey carried out by the charity showed that only seven percent of over two thousand adults felt comfortable about leaving their brain to be used for scientific purposes. For heart and kidney donation the figure was over sixty percent.

Over five million American citizens have Alzheimer’s disease, in fact every seventy seconds someone is diagnosed, with what is the sixth most likely cause of death at the present time.

A team of researchers from Britain have been testing a new medicine on a small sample of individuals and early signs are very promising.

Over a three month period five patients suffering from dementia were given the drug, CPHPC, and their condition remained stable.

A protein called serum amyloid P compound, SAP, is believed to contribute to Alzheimers by preventing the breaking down of existing plaques, it is found in both blood and the brain. CPHPC removes all the SAP and therefore these plaques can continue to disintegrate.

The new drug that is being tested will never actually cure Alzheimer’s but it could provide a longer prognosis for patients who suffer from the disease. The various Alzheimer’s groups worldwide have welcomed the results that were recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

These very significant trial results will ensure that more testing will be carried out but on a much wider scale. Treatments already available for Alzheimer’s have little effect after 6 months or so and even in those early stages improvement is very small.

The results of a study, jointly carried out at the Imperial College London and Oxford University, are seen as paving the way for science to be able to predict which people go on to suffer from Alzheimer’s in later life.

Researchers examined a group of individuals aged twenty years and above.

The APOE4 gene in humans has been shown to increase the risk of Alzheimer’s and data was obtained by a mixed group of test subjects. Although not all holders of this gene actually develop the Alzheimer’s disease.

The data shows, described Dr Christian Beckmann, that APOE4 carriers have brains that remain active, in particular the part, which is used for memory. There was a note difference between the different groups observed in the study.

This would seem to suggest that Alzheimer’s, simply put, is purely the result of worn out brain function. A spokesperson from Alzheimers Research, Rebecca Wood, believes it is an exiting discovery in this field, although the disease is very complicated and involves both environmental and genetic factors.

In the UK alone Alzheimer’s and similar dementia conditions affect almost three  quarters of a million people every year, at a huge cost to the health service. The ability to prevent members of the population getting this devastating illness would be a major break through.

There are a lot of people who are seriously sick and they wish that they were well.

They would give almost anything to be able to lead a normal life and not have to take medicine, get tests and have their life not revolve around doctor appointments.

But just like there are a lot of people who would love to have a healthy life and want to do what they want to do, there are also people who pretend to be sick, tell people that they have a lot of health problems, and even want to be hospitalized so that they can find a doctor who will say that there is something wrong with them. These people have a mental condition called Munchausen Syndrome.

Although you may not want to believe that someone is faking it, there are some symptoms that you can look for, which usually tells you that someone has Munchausen Syndrome.

Symptoms of Munchausen Syndrome

• Constantly telling people about their medical problems
• The person is frequently hospitalized
• Symptoms which are vague or not consistent
• A lot of knowledge about diseases and terminology used in medical circles